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Thursday, September 27, 2012

You have to love post it notes. Among there many uses, my favorite is to use them during guided reading as tags. I cut them into small strips and distribute them to my readers. While reading the students "tag" or sticky note any words that caused them to stumble. If they didn't stumble, they must tag any new or interesting words. The latter is good for my high readers for vocabulary enrichment. The students then write the words on the Wonderful Words sheet and cut them out when the page is full. They keep the words in their Words Baggie. My below level readers then having a growing stock of words to practice, and my middle usually have a mix of words they're learning with some extension. Everyone once in a while I will have the children pull four-five words from their baggies to use in their writing. My high readers produced some amazingly vocabulary enriched stories last year. They really had to stretch their imaginations with some of the words that were pulled, but the results were wonderful. I was pleased with the writing produce from all of my students. They applied the words at their level. The perfect balance of active reading strategies, writing, and differentiation. I will share how I use post it notes as a RTI monitoring tool soon. Now I am sharing my words sheet to download.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

September 26 is Johnny Appleseed's birthday. We celebrate in my classroom by reading the story Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg. This will be the springboard to my folktale unit as we will learn the elements of tall tales in folk literature.

Parent volunteers are making apple treats for us that day. For our writing activity, the children will write thank you notes to the parents on apple shape paper. The children will practice map skills in Social Studies related to the story. I created a map activity that I am sharing. You will need a blank map of the United States. The one that I am using comes from Super Teacher Worksheets.

The day will be a perfect balance of skill practice, thematic learning, and fun!

Do you celebrate Johnny Appleseed in your classroom?Keeping it Balanced,Tammi